Kwangali language

Kwangali
Rukwangali
Native toNamibia, Angola
RegionKavango West
Native speakers
152,000 (2018)
Language codes
ISO 639-3kwn
Glottologkwan1273
K.33

Kwangali, or RuKwangali, is a Bantu language spoken by 85,000 people along the Kavango River in Namibia, where it is a national language, and in Angola. It is one of several Bantu languages of the Kavango which have click consonants; these are the dental clicks c and gc, along with prenasalization and aspiration.

Maho (2009) includes Mbunza as a dialect, but excludes Sambyu, which he includes in Manyo.

Phonology

Consonants

Bilabial Labio-
dental		 Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m n ɲ
Plosive voiceless p t tʃ k
aspirated pʰ tʰ kʰ
voiced b d dʒ ɡ
prenasal vl. ᵐpʰ ⁿtʰ ᵑkʰ
prenasal vd. ᵐb ⁿd ⁿdʒ ᵑɡ
Fricative voiceless f s ʃ h
voiced β v z
prenasal vl. ᶬf ⁿs
prenasal vd. ᶬv ⁿz
Approximant l j w
Trill r

A dental click type [ǀ] may also be heard,[how many consonants is this?] being adopted from the neighboring Khoisan languages. The clicks may also tend to be heard as alveolar [!].

Vowels

Front Central Back
High i   iː u   uː
Mid e   eː o   oː
Low a   aː

Short vowels of /i e o u/ may also be pronounced as [ɪ ɛ ɔ ʊ].

References

  1. ↑ "Kwangali". Ethnologue. Retrieved 15 August 2018.
  2. ↑ Jouni Filip Maho, 2009. New Updated Guthrie List Online
  3. ↑ Dammann (1957)
  4. ↑ Sommer, Gabi (2003). Western Savanna. Nurse, Derek and Philippson, Gérard (eds.), The Bantu languages: London & New York: Routledge. pp. 566–580.

Books